The End of a Lifetime
by Zarius
Summary: Follow-up to "Waiting For A Wounded Soldier", set after "The End of Time". Sarah confronts The Doctor after he saves the life of her son, but is it simply too late for them?


**DOCTOR WHO:**

 **THE END OF A LIFETIME**

 **WRITTEN BY ZARIUS**

 **(A reworking of a scene from "The End of Time" and a follow-up to my fanfic "Waiting For A Wounded Soldier")**

* * *

Bannerman Road. Young Luke Smith was on his phone, eager to tell his friend Clive Langer all about the insanity that had unfolded over the festive period.

"That was the maddest Christmas ever, Clive. Mum still doesn't know what happened. She got Mister Smith to put out this story saying that Wi-Fi went mad all across the world, giving everyone hallucinations. I mean, how else do you explain it? Everyone with a different face"

Luke crossed the road, but made the mistake of not looking. A large white van came roaring down at a frantic speed, heading straight towards him.

Suddenly, a tall man in a long brown overcoat darted onto the road and dragged Luke away as the van went speeding past them.

Luke took a moment to get make sense of what he'd just experienced, he looked up the man, who looked back at him with visible disapproval at the young man's neglect of road safety.

Luke took a double take as he realised who it was.

"It's you, but you're...I mean, you..." Luke began, tripping over his words, unable to help himself.

He'd met the man once before, at the attempted wedding of his adopted mother, itself a deadly trap set up by an arch nemesis, The Trickster, to trap her and keep her out of his way. This man's intervention and assistance helped to free her.

This man was someone she'd spoken about often, sometimes in ways that conveyed need and companionship.

She tried putting him down too, just the once, during her own wedding, confessing that she needed someone _reliable_.

She would later admit she had been weak and cruel in that precise moment.

After all, this man had been responsible for shaping her into a worthy and worldly warrior, whose adventures ultimately led her directly to her son on the day he was born.

That man was The Doctor.

As The Doctor disengaged from eye contact and walked towards his faithful TARDIS parked on the opposite end of the lane, Luke's mother rushed out to greet him. Luke approached her.

"Mum, mum" he said.

"What? What is it?" his mother said.

"It's him, he saved me, it's the Doctor"

Sarah froze and glanced over to The Doctor as he waited outside the TARDIS, one foot already in the door.

Sarah looked to the left and right of her before crossing the road and headed towards where he stood.

The two maintained a steady and calm silence as they looked into one another's eyes, nothing at that moment needed saying, the body language told the all too telling story of inevitable loss about to occur for both of them.

Finally, Sarah said something.

"It's time...isn't it?" she said

"Sarah..."

"Don't, not a word. I won't hear of it"

"This can't be helped"

"Resist it" she said.

"Not this time" he replied.

"Have you ever _tried_?"

"Yes, yes I have. Wasted a whole regeneration keeping the same face during the Dalek attack some months ago, that's what helped to create the other me back then"

"The one you left with Rose Tyler" Sarah summarised. The Doctor nodded.

"I can't do that again Sarah, I can't just keep the same face this time, a part of me doesn't entirely remember the specifics, but I've already met my other incarnations, they're fixed points, they're facts, they need to exist"

Sarah looked up towards the sky, almost wanting to shout obscenities to whatever deity people believed in for standing aside and doing nothing while a lesser god than them had to suffer.

"So that's that then? You just cave in and die, and this moment is all I have left with you"

The Doctor approached her, gently holding her head with both of his trembling hands.

Sarah's eyes stung with tears, she closed them, unable to shake the bitter frustration she felt at the unfairness of it all.

"Look at me"

Sarah shook her head.

"Look. At. Me." The Doctor insisted.

Sarah gently opened her eyes, defining the tears; she could tell the Doctor was struggling to maintain his composure.

"This body, this mind, this person, all of that _will_ stay with you. When we next see each other, I'll be dead, but what I'm going to do next, the experience I leave behind, will stay with the new man, he will remember how he looked in on every moment shared with his fellow travellers over the years, and he will be so proud of what he achieved that he won't stop to consider what he lost, for all that shared remains forever a part of them and you until the day they die"

"Will I see you beyond this day?" Sarah said.

"As someone new, maybe" he confirmed.

"Maybe I deserve a maybe" she said, taking a small star ring from her right pocket and handing it back to him

"I didn't wait for you. I was weak, I'm sorry" she said.

"It was a gamble asking you, you're only human...and back then I was drawn to all those perks too. I can't tell what I'll be in the next life, but I know I have to remain drawn to that spark of humanity, to have a sense of family. Whoever I am next, I have to remember what I've left behind, a family, a legacy. You"

"And when you settle down, will you stand still somewhere? Will it be with me, or with your new family?"

"When you're a traveller, when you're like me, they'll always be new best friends Sarah, but not one day will go by where you will rest within the recesses of my mind. I won't let that happen Sarah, I won't let you sleep"

He touched her cheek, and gently wiped some of the small tears away.

"Eventually, when I'm older, I'll need a familiar destination, can I trust you to keep Bannerman Road standing?"

"Silly, you're tasking me with something all too easy. How about I promise to wait 'till the end of time for you to come home, and I'll mean it?"

"I've just dealt with the end of time, it's an audacious task" The Doctor remarked.

"Then I'll wait until the end of a lifetime, my lifetime. Even those who walk through eternity are in dire need of a deadline" Sarah joked.

The two stared at one another intently, crushed by longing and the inevitable farewells to come.

"How long until..." Sarah began.

"...Minutes" he said.

"Then make time for yourself Doctor, make peace with your demons, and come back an angel" she replied.

"I really wish you'd convince me to stay a bit longer Sarah, I really don't want to go"

Sarah kissed him on the cheek and pointed towards the TARDIS door.

"Go" she said.

The Doctor reached out, took the ring from her hand, and gently placed it back on her middle finger.

"Until the next lifetime" he said, and pulled her for a warm embrace followed up by a majestic kiss, before stepping through the doors and closing them behind him.

As it dematerialized, Sarah watched as one man's lifetime slipped away from her, and made fresh plans to welcome in the next one.


End file.
